This fellow is waiting at a traffic signal between the lanes on an Interstate 101 offramp somewhere in San Mateo County.
The six foot high pennants are a nice touch. Don’t leave home without them, especially when lane-splitting on a recumbent trike.
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Vaya con Dios, jinete del triciclo.
These cruiser-style minibikes roared up and down Irving Street in the Middle Sunset, causing a few sensitive pedestrians to cover their ears. How wude! But it was just like The Wild One with bad boy Marlon Brando and goode girl Mary Murphy right in front of the Quickly, except in color, and with frogurt instead of beer.
Why not get one for yourself? Just 300-something bones will get you started.
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Lane-splitting, famously legal in California only, can be a dangerous game on the freeway. But what about the mean city streets of San Francisco?
These two fellows must have a lot of good stories of close calls if they spend much time lanesplitting on bloody Masonic Avenue, as shown here.
Click to expand. Note the BRC sticker awarded to graduates of the safety-oriented Basic Rider Course [or to survivors of Burning Man's Black Rock City, see comments.]
All lanesplitters should wear the medal of the Vatican-certified patron saint of motocycle riders, Columbanus of Bobbio.
(Columbanus gives you protection from floods as well. Bonus!)
You’ve heard of ephemeral vernal pools, but San Francisco has its own version – autumnal lakes of water that rise up after heavy rain sometimes. Let’s call this one Lake Ashbury.
The cover on this legally parked bike certainly earned it’s keep the other night, battling waves of water 10 feet high.
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Such is the plight of those who park motocycles on the mean streets of San Francisco.
Lane splitting – everybody’s doing it, even SuzukiGirl. But what does John Law think about that?
Q. Can motorcycle riders “split” lanes and ride between other vehicles? A. Lane splitting by motorcycles is permissible but must be done in a safe and prudent manner.
Does lane splitting irritate drivers? Perhaps, but who cares?
Go for it, dOoD. The University of California says lane splitting is good for you. Plus, these days you’ve got the Vatican-certified patron saint of motocycle riders, Columbanus of Bobbio, on your side.
Bonus.
“Filtering forward” through the long line of stalled cagers in front of the San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge toll booths. Click to expand:
The Presidio of San Francisco, on the northern waterfront to the left of the newly upscale Ghirardelli Square, hasn’t seen this much action since they filmed The Presidio, starring Sean Connery. It appears that a mounted member of the United States Park Police briefly detained a Google Maps camera car for some sort of driving infraction this morning. Oh noes! Don’t impede this car – it’s gone to some interesting places. It’s not scary at all, right?
So the photo below shows how the magic of Google Street View happens – you can see their method all laid out. In this case, Google is using a brand-spanking-new Toyota Prius gas-electric hybrid (wouldn’t a 50-state VW Jetta TDI diesel get better mileage?) and a rather tall metal mast with mad cameras, GPSes and SICK laser range finders. Click to expand:
Courtesy of damianspain of the San Francisco Bay area. Thanks Damian! Check out his flickrstream for lots of great shots of San Francisco, including a rare blue sky at the North Beach Festival.
(Normally, the Presidio is a quiet place, except for people feuding over the location of the new CAMP museum and the occasional coyote attack. And Hooverball - the kids these days make all sorts of noise throwing their old school medicine balls around.)
Keep up the good work, Google Street View drivers. Just make sure to watch out for The Man (as well as all those sexy pedestrians trying to catch your attention).
[Update: National Park Service employee and Commenter #67 Motorcop_2000 disputes any account that has the Googler getting a ticket. MC_2K indicates that this driver merely got lost and was trying to get "back to the Avenues" (meaning the Richmond or the Sunset districts). Bad driving and Toyota Priuseses seem to go together, so this story rings true.]
